OGT to develop tumour profiling assay to facilitate personalised cancer treatment

Company receives £1.16m award from the UK’s Technology Strategy Board

Oxford Gene Technology (OGT), provider of innovative clinical genetics and diagnostic solutions to advance molecular medicine, has today announced that it has received a funding award of £1.16 million from the UK government-backed Technology Strategy Board. As part of the project, OGT will develop a tumour profiling assay based on targeted panel enrichment and next generation sequencing (NGS). The new assay would improve cancer care by providing specific information about each individual sufferer, thereby facilitating the design of personalised treatment strategies. This would minimise the use of untargeted, aggressive primary treatments, which are often unnecessary and ineffective, while simultaneously improving the patient experience and increasing survival rates. OGT is well positioned to develop such a screening tool, as the company has considerable experience in providing solutions to the clinical research market and already offers sequencing and microarray services and products as part of its Genefficiency™ and CytoSure™ offerings.
As part of the new project, OGT will utilise its expertise in the design of high-quality, high-throughput genomic services to develop a flexible tumour profiling assay that reduces sample processing costs and turnaround times.

The assay will detect mutations at informative loci, forming part of an integrated workflow that translates test results into clear clinical decisions. Such a solution would ultimately be provided as either a testing service or by the sale of an analysis ‘kit’ that could be used in-house by existing clinical laboratories. In addition, OGT will use its experience in data interpretation to adapt its powerful CytoSure Interpret Software to analyse the results provided by the new assays, making it simple to generate informative, easy-to-understand reports. James Clough, OGT’s Vice President of Clinical and Genomic Solutions, commented: “OGT has significant experience in utilising its ISO-accredited laboratories to process large numbers of samples and produce reliable results, quickly, accurately and efficiently. The new cancer profiling assay will complement OGT’s other microarray and sequencing solutions, further expanding the analytical options we provide. Such a service facility is novel in the UK and will benefit the patient, clinician and healthcare funder in terms of quality of care and cost-effectiveness.”

The investment made through the Technology Strategy Board is part of a five-year programme in stratified medicine research and development involving over £60 million of government funding. Led by OGT, the project is a partnership with the Universities of Southampton and Birmingham, including Salisbury and Birmingham NHS Regional Genetics Laboratories, with the latter as Birmingham United Molecular Pathology in collaboration with the Department of Cellular Pathology at University Hospitals Birmingham. These partners will provide further clinical and technical expertise, as well as validation of the assay in a clinical setting using their own sequencing platforms. Another partner in the project, CIS Healthcare, is a market leader in chemotherapy prescription management software. Results from the molecular profiling assay will be integrated into CIS Healthcare’s novel ChemoCare diagnostic module, thereby providing clinicians with up-to-date, accurate and consistent information with which to make treatment decisions.

For more information about OGT’s CytoSure and Genefficiency services and products visit www.ogt.co.uk.

About Oxford Gene Technology

Founded by Professor Ed Southern, Oxford Gene Technology (OGT) provides innovative clinical genetics and diagnostic solutions to advance molecular medicine. www.ogt.co.uk.

Clinical & Genomic Solutions: OGT’s Genefficiency™ is a unique combination of world-leading platforms, people, processing power and performance synchronised to deliver rapid, high-quality genomic data to customers worldwide. OGT’s CytoSure™ cytogenetics array, labelling and interpretation software products and services provide a complete solution for the detection of chromosomal abnormalities. Together, Genefficiency and CytoSure offer a unique, standardised and integrated solution for cytogenetics research.

Biomarker Discovery: OGT delivers tailored biomarker discovery solutions that optimise drug and diagnostic development programmes. With expertise in genomic and proteomic diagnostic biomarkers, OGT provides highly specific customised biomarker panels for cancer and other diseases, both for direct sale and also for collaboration with partner companies.

CytoSure™: For research use only
This product is provided under an agreement between Agilent Technologies, Inc., and OGT. The manufacture, use, sale or import of this product may be subject to one or more of U.S. patents, pending applications, and corresponding international equivalents, owned by Agilent Technologies, Inc. The purchaser has the non-transferable right to use and consume the product for RESEARCH USE ONLY AND NOT for DIAGNOSTICS PROCEDURES. It is not intended for use, and should not be used, for the diagnosis, prevention, monitoring, treatment or alleviation of any disease or condition, or for the investigation of any physiological process, in any identifiable human, or for any other medical purpose.

About the Technology Strategy Board

The Technology Strategy Board is a business-led government body which works to create economic growth by ensuring that the UK is a global leader in innovation. Sponsored by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), the Technology Strategy Board brings together business, research and the public sector, supporting and accelerating the development of innovative products and services to meet market needs, tackle major societal challenges and help build the future economy. For more information please visit: Technology Strategy Board website.

The aim of the Stratified Medicine Innovation Platform, which was announced in October 2010, is to place the UK at the centre of a new era of molecular-based healthcare by catalysing the commercial application of new technologies for diagnosing and treating disease. This will provide business, health and economic benefits to the UK in a competitive global market. It will also help the pharma industry to develop an increased number of more effective drugs targeted at smaller patient groups, the diagnostics industry to develop further the companion diagnostic tests that underpin this, and the healthcare providers to improve their cost effectiveness. Building on the UK’s commercial and academic strengths, the assets of the National Health Service and the close liaison between research and policy, the Stratified Medicines Innovation Platform will focus initially on therapeutic areas that present a challenge to healthcare providers, are ready for a stratified approach and that provide a significant market opportunity. For further information please visit: Stratified Medicine Innovation Platform.

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This release was published on openPR.